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Placing Outer Space: an Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds

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Placing Outer Space: an Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds PLACING OUTER SPACE EXPERIMENTAL FUTURES TECHNOLOGICAL LIVES, SCIENTIFIC ARTS, ANTHROPOLOGICAL VOICES a series edited by MICHAEL M. J. FISCHER and JOSEPH DUMIT PLACING OUTER SPACE AN EARTHLY ETHNOGRAPHY OF OTHER WORLDS LISA MESSERI Duke University Press Durham and London 2016 © 2016 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ♾ Book and cover design by Natalie F. Smith Typeset in Quadraat Pro by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Messeri, Lisa, [date] author. Title: Placing outer space : an Earthly ethnography of other worlds / Lisa Messeri. Other titles: Experimental futures. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2016. Series: Experimental futures : technological lives, scientific arts, anthropological voices | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers:LCCN 2016011263| ISBN 9780822361879 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780822362036 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780822373919 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Ethnology. | Planets. | Extrasolar planets. Classification: LCC GN320 .M574 2016 | DDC 523.2/4—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016011263 Cover art: (top) Hubble Space Telescope image. Credit: NASA, ESA and the HST Frontier Fields team (STScI); acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt. (bottom) Opportunity’s view of Wdowiak Ridge (stereo), Sept. 17, 2014. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./ Arizona State Univ. CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii INTRODUCTION From Outer Space to Outer Place . 1 ONE Narrating Mars in Utah’s Desert . 25 TWO Mapping Mars in Silicon Valley . 71 THREE Visualizing Alien Worlds. 111 FOUR Inhabiting Other Earths . .149 CONCLUSION Navigating the Infinite Cosmos . .189 Notes 197 References 211 Index 231 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I audaciously claim sole authorship of this book, but truly it is a work in- fluenced, aided, and dependent on the graciousness of many others. I am indebted to the many researchers who opened up their labs and lives to me. The MIT exoplanet community kindly allowed me and my notebook to attend their meetings. Sara Seager was not only an informant but a mentor as well. Josh Winn, Leslie Rogers, Sukrit Ranjan, and Nikku Madhusudan shared their research and their wonder with me. It was serendipitous that Debra Fischer was on sabbatical in Cambridge when I was looking for a guide to take me to an observatory. Not only did she invite me, a stranger, on a research trip but she offered friendship and support throughout my research. Carol Stoker similarly took the risk of inviting me to live in close quarters with her for two weeks at the Mars Desert Research Station. Michael Broxton found a home for me at NASA Ames Research Center, and I thank Terry Fong for giving me a desk in the Pirate Lab and Zack Moratto, Ted Scharff, Mike Lundy, Ross Beyer, and Ara Nefian for their camaraderie. Thanks also to the numerous scientists at NASA and those who, when visit- ing MIT, patiently and engagingly answered my questions in interviews and informal conversations. Thanks also to Glenn Bugos and April Gage, who run the history office atNASA Ames. The institutions that provided me with intellectual homes during re- search, writing, and revision shaped how I interpreted the work of these scientists. This book’s life began in the classrooms and faculty offices of MIT’s Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS). Mentors in this phenomenal program encouraged me to experiment with disciplinary and theoretical approaches, finding means and language to address the puzzles I encountered among space scientists. Stefan Helmreich changed how I saw the world. Not only does he continue to inspire me as a scholar but he is also an exemplar of how to be impos- sibly generous with ideas and time for students. David Kaiser and David Mindell expertly guided my maneuvering between technical and social fields. Graham Jones arrived as I was leavingMIT , but he gamely stepped aboard my dissertation committee and diligently read and commented on my work. I would also like to thank other teachers and mentors I encoun- tered in Cambridge, including Heather Paxson, Chris Walley, Mike Fischer, Anne McCants, Susan Silbey, Vincent Lépinay, Natasha Schüll, Roe Smith, Roz Williams, Leo Marx, Sheila Jasanoff, Peter Galison, and Peter Gordon. Faculty mentors are all well and good, but the graduate student community of HASTS made the experience joyful. My thanks to Orkideh Behrouzan, Etienne Benson, Laurel Braitman, Nick Buchanan, Marie Burks, Candis Callison, Peter Doshi, Kieran Downes, Amah Edoh, Xaq Frolich, Chihyung Jeon, Shreeharsh Kelkar, Shekhar Krishnan, Tom Özden-Schilling, Canay Özden-Schilling, Anne Pollock, Caterina Scaramelli, Ryan Shapiro, Peter Shulman, Ellan Spero, Michaela Thompson, Ben Wilson, and Sara Wylie as well as non-HASTSies Abby Spinak and Katherine Dykes. As we have gone on to new institutions, Emily Wanderer, David Singerman, Teasel Muir- Harmony, Alma Steingart, Sophia Roosth, and Michael Rossi continue to be great friends to think with. Rebecca Woods is responsible for helping me figure out any clever title and many clever ideas in this book and to her I owe a great thanks for being a constant source of amusement and support. As a postdoctoral fellow teaching with the Integrated Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, Peter Struck gave me a unique home from which to think about the pedagogical and scholarly power of interdisciplin- arity. The faculty and students of the History and Sociology of Science De- partment warmly welcomed me into their lively conversations, and scholars across the university influenced how I approached transforming the disser- tation into a book. I thank John Tresch, Greg Urban, Ruth Schwartz Cowan, viii Acknowledgments Robert Kohler, Matt Hersch, Lisa Ruth Rand, Joanna Radin, Mary Mitchell, Britt Dahlberg, and Beth Hallowell. With two other postdocs, Kate Mason and Jessica Mozersky, I was part of a makeshift cohort, and we helped each other make sense of where we were and where we were going. For me this meant continuing my southerly migration and finding a home at the University of Virginia in the program of Science, Technology, and Society in the Department of Engineering and Society. Here Bernie Carlson, Mike Gorman, Tolu Odumosu, Rider Foley, Caitlin Wylie, Kay Neeley, Deborah Johnson, and colleagues in the Department of Anthro- pology, including Susie McKinnon, Kath Weston, Jim Igoe, Ira Bashkow, and China Scherz supported the final shaping of the project. Walks with Deborah, Susie, and Geeta Patel were particularly clarifying. I also thank Sarah Milov, Rachel Wahl, Blaire Cholewa, and Melissa Levy for needed dis- tractions in this final stage. I was fortunate to become part of a virtual institution of like-minded scholars who are passionate about understanding the sociality of outer space. The impact of writing, conversing, and collaborating with this group is evident on every page of this book. I thank Janet Vertesi, David Valentine, Debbora Battaglia, Zara Mirmalek, Teasel Muir-Harmony, and Lisa Ruth Rand. Valerie Olson has been an especially important interlocutor, and I thank her for the many phone calls and conference coffees. Fieldwork for this book was carried out with support from MIT’s Kelly- Douglas Fund and a doctoral dissertation grant from the National Science Foundation (SES-0956692). While finishing my dissertation, I was partially supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as a fellow for a John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures hosted by MIT’s De- partment of Anthropology. Ken Wissoker wisely advised me throughout this processes. I owe much thanks to him, Elizabeth Ault, Sara Leone, and Duke University Press for supporting this book. The three anonymous reviewers encouraged me to make some significant changes and sagely advised ways to sharpen and strengthen this text. As this process came to a close, I was delighted to be included in Mike Fischer’s and Joe Dumit’s Experimental Futures series, and my thanks go to them as well. The discussion of astronaut geology training from chapter 1 appears in an expanded form in Astropolitics: The International Journal of Space Politics and Policy. Acknowledgments ix Many friends and family members have offered enticing, fun reasons to take a break from work. For all of the laughter, I thank Rachael Lapidis, Melissa Read, Teresa Kim, Anna Dietrich, Jeff Roberts, Abby Berry, Laura Gibson, Emily Brennan, Susan Choi, and Jeff Ebert. Armfuls of love go out to my brother, Jason, and family in Maplewood, Verona, and Avalon. Finally, for my parents, Ellen Musikant and Peter Messeri, thank you, simply, for everything. x Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION FROM OUTER SPACE TO OUTER PLACE Concentrating on space, one encounters place. —Peter Redfield,Space in the Tropics (2000) Two young boys point up at the night sky, silhouetted against a lake reflect- ing the oranges, blues, and purples of a sky at sunset. Even though we can- not see their faces, their body language speaks an animated excitement. A viewer of this scene, caught on camera by the boys’ mother, might won- der what the kids are pointing to and why they are so excited. Sara Seager, the mother, an MIT professor of planetary science and MacArthur fellow, shared this picture with an audience at a conference on exoplanet astron- omy, the study of planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. I sat among the astronomers, listening and watching as Seager built off of the energy and aspiration of the picture as she asked the audience to imagine that this pic- ture was taken in the future. What might the boys be pointing to with such excitement? For the assembled audience, the answer was obvious: they will be pointing to a star known to have a planet just like Earth. Most known exoplanets are exotic and strange, but Seager and her colleagues hope that the future of their young field lies in the study of familiar, Earth-like plan- ets.
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